Michael Douglas re-releases 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'

American actor and producer Michael Douglas attended the world premiere of ' One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest ' in its remastered version at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival this Saturday, 50 years after the original, a work that is unparalleled in cinema of the last two decades, according to the New Jersey filmmaker.

The film, directed by Czech-American Milos Forman , produced by Douglas and Saul Zaentz and based on the novel by Ken Kesey , garnered five Oscars after being nominated in nine categories, and marked Forman's rise to stardom.

Douglas recalled that, in that year of 1975 , other films nominated for the Hollywood Academy Award were ' Jaws ', by Steven Spielberg , 'Dog Day Afternoon', by Sidney Lumet, and the musical 'Nashville', by Robert Altman.

"Have there been as many quality films in the last twenty years as there were then?" Douglas asked the press conference attendees at the Thermal Hotel in Karlovy Vary .

Regarding Forman's Oscar-winning film, starring Jack Nicholson , Douglas recalled the irreplaceable role played by co-producer Zaentz, "a high-roller, shy, and voracious reader" who later found success in Hollywood.

Zaentz, a film and record label executive, won the best picture Oscar that year, followed that year with Forman 's " Amadeus " in the 1980s, and then with Anthony Minghella's "The English Patient" in the 1990s.

"We were blessed by the presence of Saul (Zaentz), who was able to finance this independently," after Hollywood studios rejected the film about the psychiatric facility , Douglas recalled.

Douglas, star of 'Basic Instinct' (1992), 'Wall Street' (1987) and 'The Game' (1997), who received the Crystal Globe for his film career at the 33rd edition of the Czech film festival in Karlovy Vary in 1998, also spoke out about the political situation in his country.

"I'm worried and nervous," he said of Republican President Donald Trump's administration, which appears to be retreating from multilateral diplomacy.

He described democracy as something "valuable, vulnerable, and that must be protected," although he emphasized that it is the citizens who must address this challenge.

"We are flirting with autocracy, like in Hungary, and I hope that in this struggle with what we have on our hands, we remember what the Czechs did to win freedom and independence," Douglas concluded, referring to the 1989 Velvet Revolution , a peaceful transition that allowed what was then Czechoslovakia to leave behind a totalitarian communist regime.

The filmmaker, who turned 80 last September, recalled that after suffering from cancer that had spread, he underwent chemotherapy and radiotherapy , refusing surgery, as it would have meant amputating part of his jaw, something that would have made it difficult for him to continue in the film industry.

"Having advanced cancer isn't a vacation, and there weren't many options," Douglas said, while expressing gratitude for his good fortune, which has allowed him to "keep working."

He added that now, after 60 years of hard work, he is "glad to have free time" and is also happy to see his wife, Catherine Zeta-Jones , active in the movies.

"Catherine is 20 years younger. It's about maintaining a good marriage , and I'm happy to play the homemaker ," Douglas added.

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